The first set of wards encountered upon ascending to the second floor are the regular wards. These wards were used for patients that were considered low-risk, and as a result these rooms could be considered small but adequate. In each room, a metal bed frame, an end table, and a shelf for books can be found in various states of decay and with various objects on them, left largely untouched as a result of the abandonment of the island. Nothing about the rooms is comforting, however; like most of the asylum they were built with an eye towards cost efficiency rather than patient comfort. Belongings of previous patients can still be found in these roomsa visible reminder of what the asylum used to be used for, with pictures from art therapy stuck up on some walls and photos of family on others.

Two. Two voices. Then walking. Ben resisted the urge to run and, after a moment, the walking stopped. He let out a slight sigh, then continued. He was already halfway down the stairs. If he kept this up, he would be gone before they even knew he was there. His left hand trailing along the wall, he continued descending.

He was near the bottom when he heard someone approaching the top of the stairs. Alarmed, he caught his heel on the edge of a step, which unbalanced him and made him stomp his boot slightly on the next one. His left hand shot forward, sending a painting that hung on the wall swinging. "No no no no no no please please please..." he expressed silently, while freezing in place, the painting slowly coming to a standstill. He hoped against all hope that no one had heard that.

Putting this here, so people know, if it ever becomes relevant (unlikely, but still): If you want to use my characters for anything non-profit, you may, without contacting me even (though it would be nice regardless). All I want is a small mention that gives me credit for first concieving of them. If you want to use my characters for something for-profit, if it's just a cameo or similar, you also may, under the same terms; if it's a more substantial role, I don't want to chain myself to any statement - then contact me.

Hannah sighed as she finished grabbing her things. The rest of the island was sure to be horrible, but so had been staying in that room for the past day. She picked up the backpack and put it over her shoulders. It was lighter than it had been. She was worn out enough that it didn't reassure her much, especially since it was mostly lighter from her eating her way through a large part of her food supply.

She moved her head to the left and felt the satisfying pop from her neck. She hadn't realized how stiff everything had gotten. Maybe it would have been worth it to have kept doing her exercises even in this situation. But she hadn't, and she didn't feel like telling Noah to wait up because she needed to stretch.

She walked into the hall and saw Noah clutching that...thing. He seemed to be focused on something.

"Noah, uh, what's up?"

It was casual, but still asked a question. Hopefully the answer was that nothing was going on and she was just imagining it.

Noah approached the top of the stairs. He could sort of see a figure at the bottom of them. The person had made quite a racket, and he wasn't sure who it was, but whoever it was, he needed to figure out who they were and what they were doing.

"Hannah, stay back just in case," Noah said to his companion.

Noah hollered down the stairs.

"Hey, we're not playing, so we'd like it if you weren't either!" he said to the person down there. "Is that cool with you?"

Oh god, why did I just say that shit? Please don't kill me for saying something that stupid.

16:57 KamiKaze Laurie, if you ever become a mod, let it be known that one day you will critique someone's profile who had a girl killing her family friend because he raped her, and the person will insult you by calling you a talking Oshawott doll.

21:42Acidic i AM ANAL WART MAN

00:19Delroy.... I HAVE AN IMAGE OF HANSEL FUCKING TRAVIS WITH A CHAINSAW STUCK IN MY HEAD. HOW IS THIS IN ANY WAY GOOD!?

Ben didn't dare to move. The figures were at the top of the stairs now, talking, but he didn't know if they could see him, it was so dark. His plan hadn't failed yet - he hadn't been spotted, technically. They couldn't be sure that he was there.

At least, that was what he thought. Then one of the two - a guy - hollered down the stairs at him. Ben jumped, and almost ran out of fright again. "Hey, we're not playing," said the guy, "so we'd like it if you weren't either! Is that cool with you?"

"Playing?" thought Ben. Was that what people were calling it? And they weren't... playing?

Well, good to know. Ben stayed put for a few more seconds, then realized that he should either answer them or go. He couldn't just stay standing there in the dark waiting for them to go. Because that wasn't going to happen. So he turned around. There were indeed two people there, at the top of the stairs - and one of them was holding a club or something.

"Run! They're armed and in a group! Run, you idiot!", came the inevitable outcry in his head. But something stopped him doing that. He hadn't talked to anybody all day, and only to the girl with the eye-patch the day before. He wanted to talk to people. He felt... lonely.

Putting this here, so people know, if it ever becomes relevant (unlikely, but still): If you want to use my characters for anything non-profit, you may, without contacting me even (though it would be nice regardless). All I want is a small mention that gives me credit for first concieving of them. If you want to use my characters for something for-profit, if it's just a cameo or similar, you also may, under the same terms; if it's a more substantial role, I don't want to chain myself to any statement - then contact me.

Who were they? Hannah thought it was a funny question. They all went to school together, if whoever the boy was wanted to know who they were he could have just shown himself and then they all could have recognized one another, and that would have been that. They had only gone to school together for literal years.

It was fine though. He was probably just scared. They were all scared, even if Hannah couldn't understand why anyone would be scared of her. She was just a very tired teenage girl at this point, not a malevolent ghost, or a crazed killer, or any dangerous kind of person.

"It's Hannah and Noah," she chimed in. That should explain things, there weren't that many other Noah's or Hannah's in their class, were there?

"Yeah, what she said," Noah said in response to Hannah answering the guy's question.

Noah couldn't really make the guy out in the darkness. He probably was just scared or something. Noah couldn't blame him. Noah also couldn't believe they'd run into some jittery guy right when they decided to leave the comfort of their wards. But that seemed to be how this universe worked, so Noah was going to roll with it.

16:57 KamiKaze Laurie, if you ever become a mod, let it be known that one day you will critique someone's profile who had a girl killing her family friend because he raped her, and the person will insult you by calling you a talking Oshawott doll.

21:42Acidic i AM ANAL WART MAN

00:19Delroy.... I HAVE AN IMAGE OF HANSEL FUCKING TRAVIS WITH A CHAINSAW STUCK IN MY HEAD. HOW IS THIS IN ANY WAY GOOD!?

"It's Hannah and Noah," came the reply, this time from the other person, a girl, probably Hannah. "Yeah, what she said," the guy who was probably Noah chimed in. "Yeah, that's who we are. Who are you?"

Ben didn't really know a Hannah or a Noah. So that didn't help. But he didn't remember any Hannah or Noah from the announcements (though that didn't say much) and he was already talking to them, and he could run at any time and - oh god the girl was armed too!

Breath. "Huuuuuuuhuu." Breath. "Huuuuuuuhuu." "Focus, Ben", he thought. They weren't attacking him. They weren't being aggressive. They weren't even being rude. Just be nice.

Putting this here, so people know, if it ever becomes relevant (unlikely, but still): If you want to use my characters for anything non-profit, you may, without contacting me even (though it would be nice regardless). All I want is a small mention that gives me credit for first concieving of them. If you want to use my characters for something for-profit, if it's just a cameo or similar, you also may, under the same terms; if it's a more substantial role, I don't want to chain myself to any statement - then contact me.

Hannah wasn't sure what to think when she heard it was Ben Litcher out there. That's mostly because she could barely remember him at all. He was pretty well a face in the crowd she could attach a name to and not much else. She thought that maybe they were in a class together at some point, but even that wasn't something she wanted to commit to.

She glanced over at Noah.

"I can talk," she responded, while rolling her eyes a little bit, making sure that only Noah could see that part.

Sure she could talk, but she wasn't sure what they would talk about other than the obvious case of being in that situation being awful.

Ben Lichter. He had a weird nickname, didn't he? Squirrel, or something. Noah knew he wouldn't be able to take him seriously with a nickname like that, so he was just going to call him Ben. He seemed pretty startled and paranoid, which was definitely what they didn't need right now. Hannah said she'd talk to him, so Noah stepped back.

Noah took a step back from the stairs. If this was going to go wrong, Noah wasn't sure Sawlaska could help him and Hannah. But maybe Hannah was good to talking to squirrels like this guy, so perhaps it'd all work out with everyone walking away happily and alive.

16:57 KamiKaze Laurie, if you ever become a mod, let it be known that one day you will critique someone's profile who had a girl killing her family friend because he raped her, and the person will insult you by calling you a talking Oshawott doll.

21:42Acidic i AM ANAL WART MAN

00:19Delroy.... I HAVE AN IMAGE OF HANSEL FUCKING TRAVIS WITH A CHAINSAW STUCK IN MY HEAD. HOW IS THIS IN ANY WAY GOOD!?

Hannah said she would talk! Relief washed over Ben because of that - then Noah said a few words to her, and stepped out of sight. Ben's eyes narrowed. His inner voice had immediately begun voicing suggestions of where he might be going and what he might be doing, and Ben couldn't help but find some of them plausible. Such as the one that wondered if there was another way downstairs, so that Noah might sneak up from behind, while Hannah distracted him and...

Ben shook his head vigourously a few times. "No!", he thought. "It's that kind of paranoia that drove away the girl with the eye-patch."

And has kept you alive until now.

"Oh, shup up," he grumbled aloud. The voice didn't reply.

So instead he turned to the girl, fixed her the most welcoming smile he could muster, though he wasn't sure she could see it, and spoke: "Thanks. I've been a bit lonely these past few days. How... er, how are you? I mean, apart from... you know."

Putting this here, so people know, if it ever becomes relevant (unlikely, but still): If you want to use my characters for anything non-profit, you may, without contacting me even (though it would be nice regardless). All I want is a small mention that gives me credit for first concieving of them. If you want to use my characters for something for-profit, if it's just a cameo or similar, you also may, under the same terms; if it's a more substantial role, I don't want to chain myself to any statement - then contact me.